not sure this would go down as well for someone without a well established developer's expertise/experience. i can imagine landing at a foreign destination, after my life-reset and then asking '...now what?'
True.. If someone who wasn't already an established freelancer / contractor in the IT field tried to do what he did, they'd certainly have a hard go of it. And, if they wanted to mirror the author's "reset", they would certainly have to think longer term than most people seem to be capable of; 2+ years minimum of pushing yourself to learn, gain experience in the field, and build a network of contacts.
Probably hardship is the exact thing that he wants to experience.